“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

I don’t know about you, but my heart is troubled. I’m angry about the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, I’m sad about the continued rise of deaths due to this virus. I feel weak against the corruption of those in power as they force their agendas on the rest of us. I am increasingly frustrated at the way Christians seem to join the side of the strong instead of the weak, choosing self care over the care of others. I am stressed about a future I cannot predict, unsure of just about all the decisions anyone makes, much less mine. But I believe in God, and I believe in Jesus, and I believe that in him he has prepared and is preparing a place for all of us. I believe he has come back in Spirit so that we can be with him by faith. I believe he is the way, but I still need to take steps forward.

Welcome all to the Thursday, May 7, 2020 daily post from Peachtree Baptist Church, my name is Paul Capps, pastor. We are taking steps toward Pentecost and looking at how the gospel of John treats the idea of Jesus ascending to heaven but leaving behind his Spirit, an advocate to help followers of Jesus stay true to his way. Today’s passage, John 14:1-4, is often used at funerals to describe not a divine idea but a very human notion; that there are mansions in heaven waiting for us when we die and that Jesus is preparing rooms for our individual comfort in the afterlife. This idea became especially pervasive in Europe following the Reformation and especially during what has been called the Age of Enlightenment beginning in the 17th century. But the Bible has instead always expressed a cosmic redemption - that is, that God’s plans are not just for you and for me as individuals but for the entire universe. And those plans are fulfilled in Jesus.

So here in this passage, it really helps to reframe it outside of our own biases and our current reality and look at the historical setting. It also helps to remember that it can’t mean to us now what it never meant to them then. In this case, what the disciples would have thought about when Jesus said these words was not a heavenly bed and breakfast, but the temple in Jerusalem. The temple for Jews was the place they believed that earth and heaven met. In the holy of holies was the very presence of God. Jesus says he is going to prepare rooms, but is not going to be limited by one room. As he goes on to say in verse 11, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.” Jesus is the very presence of God on earth, and now, he is going to prepare the universe for his presence by ascending and gifting his followers with his Spirit. The Spirit is the presence of God on earth for us now and the indwelling of his presence through the Spirit comes by faith, as we saw in our in-depth look at Acts 2. 

It also helps to read passages like these with the Lord’s Prayer always rolling around in your mind: “Let your kingdom come, as in heaven, also on the earth.” What was difficult for these disciples to understand is often still difficult for us as well. Jesus is going to make room for everyone and the entire universe in this one tiny room in the temple? How can that be? Through his work on the cross, his resurrection, his ascension and his gift of the Spirit, so that by faith in him, we become the temple, we become the room, to in turn, make room for all others to come in. By faith and the indwelling of the Spirit, we are the presence of God, we represent Jesus, his love, his sacrifice, his servanthood, his justice, his ethic. We put others first, we cry out against anything that doesn’t match the multi-cultural mission of the gospel; we elevate the poor, not the rich; we fail, all the time, but we get up and we keep trying to follow the way of Jesus, because we believe in him.

I think this passage is actually a great one to use at funerals, not so that we can think that an individual is in an eternal mansion in the clouds, but instead to bring comfort to those of us that are still here, waiting, as the living and the dead wait, for Jesus to complete the redemption of the world on his return. Because sometimes we feel beat up and tired and we are not sure, as Thomas says next, of the way forward. We need the assurance that by faith in Christ, there is a way to find a future, there is hope not only for you and me, but for the entire universe.

As we continue the journey, we do so together. My place is your place. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you tomorrow.

Last Supper by Ilya Repin, 1903.

Greetings and welcome to the May 6, 2020 edition of the daily post from Peachtree Baptist Church, my name is Paul Capps, pastor and I’m thankful for all the listeners, near and far who have received encouragement from these posts. I would love to know what has been especially meaningful for you, reach out by commenting on this site or replying to emails or on Facebook.

Last week and the week before we took a deep dive into Acts chapter 2, a historical record of when the Spirit came with Power on the followers of Jesus and the church as we know it was born. As we continue to move towards the church’s remembrance of Pentecost on May 31, we will be looking at the themes of the Spirit and Power in our Sunday morning zoom Bible Study sessions from Luke and Acts. In our time of worship for the rest of May we will be using John’s gospel, a more theological record, to see what it has to say about the Spirit as well.

We’ll begin with John chapter 14 for the two weeks, which is near the beginning of a long speech Jesus gives at the Last Supper, which we remember each week during worship. No other gospel provides this much detail of the words of Jesus during this time he had with his disciples, but that is a good place to start in thinking about the speech itself. It was a very intimate speech, with love as its overarching theme, given to a small group of disciples with whom Jesus had become very very close. So in chapter 13 we have Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, a physical act that showed how much Jesus loved them and wanted them to understand true love and servanthood. He then predicts his betrayal and Judas leaves, but the disciples don’t really understand what was really going on. Jesus then begins talking about his glorification which includes the idea of his ascension.

Much of the rest of the speech, which ends in prayer, is a reinforcement of Jesus’ identity as God’s promised hope for the world. In Chapter 14 he promises both his future presence that is right around the corner as well as a long term future hope of his presence. Leading up to this coming Sunday we’ll be looking at verses 1-14, but today I just want to read the passage. John 14:1-14 read from the New International Version:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”

5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

This is the Word of the Lord, thanks be to God!

Ain Vares, Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life, www.ainvaresart.com.

Peachtree Baptist Church joyfully presents Thomas Ballew extemporaneously interpreting Acts 1-2 on our grand piano, recorded live on April 30, 2020.

Welcome to the PBC daily post for Friday, May 1, 2020. Today I to want simply mention three things:

1. As we continue traveling through the storm of this pandemic, we rely on good information and good resources, and both those are to find right now. Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has set up a dedicated page. It’s a great source of inspiration and helps especially as we are unable to be together in our building, so please check it out. We also have several congregants who work at the Centers for Disease Control and they have been great resources as well, especially the page about preventing yourself and others from getting sick, from how the disease spreads to how maintaining social distancing is still the best way to prevent transmission.

2. Secondly, If you’ve checked in on the last couple of days to our daily posts you have heard about the end of the second chapter of Acts, where Luke shows us how the first organized group of Jesus followers lived. Last week we looked at Peter’s sermon that came after Pentecost when the Spirit of God descended on the people and began the multicultural mission of God to spread the news about Jesus throughout the world. An easy way of catching up is to just take a few minutes to read Acts 2. For previous discussions, check out the sermons page of the website. 

3. Finally, I think a great culmination of this in depth study is what we’ll be releasing tomorrow here on this page. Last night, Thomas Ballew, our music associate, recorded a work of extemporaneous jazz in our sanctuary as the sun was setting through our stained glass windows. A little over 17 minutes, this beautiful piece of art explores the themes presented in Acts 1 and 2. I was very moved by it, and I’m very excited to share it with you. Maybe this is what Pentecost sounded like!

Thanks for listening, be sure to check in tomorrow, and I hope to see you Sunday for our zoom worship.

—Paul

Come back tomorrow to listen!

Yesterday, we launched into the end of Acts 2, perhaps the most challenging part of the chapter because it shows us not only what the people accepted to be true, but how that truth was lived out within the newly formed community. Welcome to the daily post for Thursday, April 30, 2020, my name is Paul Capps, pastor of Peachtree Baptist Church.

Last Thursday, I asked you all if you would share some of your struggles as well as strategies you’ve used to help you get through this difficult time. No one was willing to ‘go public’ but I know through phone calls mostly that many of you are indeed dealing with a number of hardships, from the seeming impossibility in applying for unemployment to deaths in the family due to Covid-19. I would simply remind each of you reading or listening that though it feels like we are on our own desert islands, we need to reach out to and be reached by our friends and our fellow members of the body of Christ. If you need a phone number or address of someone in the church or if you need to pray or talk to someone, call or text me at 843.271.3024, email me, [email protected], set up a zoom with me, facetime me, find me on Messenger, but reach. Remember that we are to be like little Christ’s and through Jesus, God is always reaching to forge and grow loving relationships.

It’s clear from scriptures that the early followers of Jesus, though there were already thousands of them just after that one day, felt the great need to be together. Luke tells us that they devoted themselves to fellowship. God was doing miracles through them. At the core of their community, they shared their possessions, even sacrificing their own comfort for others in the community. They had daily worship together. They had daily meals together. And God added to their number daily.

Right now we cannot physically practice this kind of communal living. And It wasn’t long before the early church stopped as well. It wasn’t long before rebellion against its ideal crept in and it was corrupted. But the ideal remains. Craig Keener describes it as “modeling the ideal, proleptically eschatological lifestyle of the kingdom,” which is a big worded way of saying that the earliest Christians were living like God intends for us all to live when Jesus returns. And that kind of lifestyle is part of the purpose of Pentecost - it is one of the ways that multicultural mission is meant to be lived out. He says, that this ideal church “affirms that the new life of the Spirit experienced as a norm by the earliest Jesus movement epitomizes God’s plan.”

Right now, as economies cannot save us and boundaries and politics only seek to get in the way of God’s plan, we are brought to our knees by a microscopic force that reminds us of the kind of life to which we are truly called. To prayer, to looking for signs of God’s activity in the world, to eating meals with loved ones, and to sharing our possessions with the community. In whatever way that challenges you today, act on it by the faith you possess. Maybe it means reaching out for help. Maybe it means helping in whatever you know how to. Breathe deep the Spirit and breathe out the work of the Spirit in you to perfume and season your home and this world with God’s love until Jesus comes again.

While so many of us have been sheltering in place over the past several weeks it has revealed some of the dark sides of our broken humanity. There are so many stories of lost patience, increased levels of severe anxiety, higher rates of all kinds of abuse: verbal, domestic, sexual; it would seem that while we are designed by God to be together, we rebel in ways we don’t even understand when we are forced into close quarters. We have notions about freedom that are different from God’s definition of freedom in Christ. We like to go, we don’t like to stay.

Here at the end of Acts 2, scripture provides us the model for the Christian community. Some scholars have suggested that it is a model based on a false sense of reality that Jesus would come again in those followers' lifetimes and therefore no longer applies to us in the same way. I would suggest that those first organized groups of Jesus followers were getting their cues from the Spirit and were doing their best to be obedient. It shows us a model of unity within disruption. Something we are all familiar with right now. And I think there is a lot we could learn from them. Unity within disruption has a ring to it, stay with me to the end to hear about a special way we can think through those themes.

Welcome all to another ‘pandemic post’ for April 29, 202 here at Peachtree Baptist Church, my name is Paul Capps, pastor. We have been looking at Peter’s speech over the past several days and now we are at the end of chapter, where the people are responding to the message they have accepted - that Jesus is both Lord and Messiah, Master and Provider, Shepherd and Redeemer, Servant and Savior. Jesus was, is and just as he will be for these early followers, he will be our future as we anticipate with our lives the redemption of this world. 

When the people accepted Peter’s message, they asked “What shall we do?” Peter told them to repent and be baptized, but in verse 40 it says, he also “warned them with many other words and pleaded with them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Save yourselves. If it’s Jesus who saves, how can we save ourselves from anything? What does Peter mean here? This is one of those situations where it really helps to study the words in their original context, and here, the word used for ‘save’ is better translated as ‘turn away from’ or ‘escape from.’ Even the New American Standard Version is better than most here when it says, ‘Be saved from.’ And the word corruption is a kind of twisting, like a straight path that has been manipulated into knots. Peter says many words as Luke tells us, but ends with this idea of moving away, turning away from the crooked path that humanity has developed and towards the salvation available for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, as we see from the Joel reference Peter used early in his speech.

So with all that in mind, it makes perfect sense what comes next. Because orthodoxy, that is, a corrected understanding, must also be paired with orthopraxy, that is, the practice, or living out of that understanding. Verses 42-47 show us what living into the idea of saving themselves from a corrupt generation looks like. They people accepted the message, they asked what they should do, they said the words and then Peter told them to live into the words. And so they escaped into the church. They developed a way of living that was a turning away from the path that had been developed by a rebellious humanity. And so I’ll close today with just a reading of these verses from the New International Version and we’ll pick up with more in the coming days, but as you listen think about your situation at home. Are you practicing your salvation with your life?

Acts 2:42-47

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

As we continue to learn how to coexist with this virus, we are continually reminded of the disruption it brings our lives. But we are also reminded here in Acts that we are called to live in such a way that we are unified by our love for God and for one another. 

And so with that in mind I want to tell you about a special treat. PBC will be releasing an EP from Thomas Ballew. As many of you know, Thomas has an extraordinary gift of extemporaneous jazz. He composed the intro and outro of these podcasts, plays each Sunday for us even on our zoom calls, has had a concert with our organist Lamar Savage and also provided a community concert last year. On Saturday, May 2, PBC will post a recording to this website of Thomas playing impromptu pieces based on the theme of unity within disruption. Look for a link on Saturday, and we’ll see you tomorrow.

Over the past 44 days, we have not been able to meet together in our building, but it has been my hope that we have maintained not only personal connections through these posts but that our faith has also been strengthened. Welcome today to the post for Tuesday, April 28, my name is Paul Capps, pastor of Peachtree Baptist Church. 

Yesterday I had a zoom call with over 20 other pastors facilitated by Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Georgia and there was general consensus that we as church leaders should be careful and conservative when it comes to opening the doors of our buildings for worship, discipleship and fellowship. Those with plans in place are hoping to begin that process no earlier than May 31, which also happens to be Pentecost. I think it makes a lot of sense to be together on this, and so I am going to follow suit. There are so many considerations, like toilet use, use of hymnals and worship guides, food and drink, Communion, whether to require masks, whether to provide gloves, and so much more. Personally, I don’t think anyone should be here for worship if all of us can’t be here, and so we will wait until that time. I would rather see all of your smiles on zoom than masks in pews. Right now, this is what coexisting with the virus looks like; we will make adjustments as time progresses.

So with all that, I also want to share with you an article I read yesterday from my alma mater, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. As our church is a representative of global Christianity, it was one of the best things I’ve read about this global pandemic thus far.

I hope it was as helpful to you as it was to me. As we have been taking a deep look at the initial thrust of the multi-cultural mission that God launched through Jesus and his promise of the Spirit in Acts 2, we need to once again hear that we are called into the world to respond to God’s love for it. I am grateful to be a small part of that movement here at PBC.

—Paul

From the Center for Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary,

Yesterday I invited you all to share your struggles and strategies as we move through the storm of this pandemic together. If you haven’t responded yet, remember that what you are experiencing could really help someone else and secondly, if you haven’t heard or read the post from yesterday, head over to the April 23 post titled Naming our Feelings and Sharing our Struggles. Comment on that post or this one, email [email protected] or text me at 843.271.3024.

Today I will introduce the passage that will be our focus during worship on Sunday, Acts 2:36-41. As a recap, Peter had just given a speech to a large crowd of people that had heard Peter and the followers of Jesus begin speaking in different languages as the Spirit had enabled them. This event is simply called Pentecost in the Christian church but Pentecost was the Greek name for the Jewish festival of Shavuot, and so there were many pilgrims in Jerusalem from all around who spoke a variety of languages. God was beginning the multi-cultural mission of revealing the future through these Jesus followers by pouring out the Spirit into them, enabling them to represent Jesus and his message of unity first to these Jewish pilgrims.

Peter explained that God was fulfilling prophecy through them, giving them the power of the Spirit to preach this good news about the purposes and plans of God through Jesus. He also said that even though these Jewish kindred had seen God at work through Jesus, they killed him, but God raised him from death because death had no hold on him. He talked about how even King David had spoken of Jesus, that a savior would come who would reveal God’s plans through his resurrection, as Jesus had done. And this Jesus, who is now at the right hand of God, had provided his promised Spirit as an advocate to continue God’s revelation.

He ends the speech by saying, “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

So today I just want to read the verses and ask a few questions as you ponder the words. You’ll hear the verses again on Sunday in our zoom worship that will begin at 11:00 AM along with some interpretation. From the NIRV translation:

36 “So be sure of this, all you people of Israel. You nailed Jesus to the cross. But God has made him both Lord and Messiah.”

37 When the people heard this, it had a deep effect on them. They said to Peter and the other apostles, “What should we do?”

38 Peter replied, “All of you must turn away from your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then your sins will be forgiven. You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children. It is also for all who are far away. It is for all whom the Lord our God will choose.”

40 Peter said many other things to warn them. He begged them, “Save yourselves from these evil people.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized. About 3,000 people joined the believers that day.

Some questions to consider until we meet again on Sunday. Has anyone ever told you to turn toward God and be changed? Has anyone ever said that you need to repent of your sins and be forgiven? What does repentance look like to you? What does forgiveness look like to you? Why did these people, who were really quite harshly criticized by Peter suddenly cut to the heart? Has anyone ever said things to you that made a lifelong impact? The people were receptive to Peter’s words that day. But why? And what would it take for us to be receptive to the message?

Today I will take a break from looking at Acts 2, because instead of hearing from me, I’d like to hear from you all, and I’d like you all to share your wisdom with each other. Either comment on this post or on Facebook, by email to [email protected] or by text to me at 843.271.3024.

Recently an article was passed around that I thought was very helpful that was titled “17 Totally Normal Things to Feel Right Now According to Therapists.” One of the main things it talked about was that just naming the feelings we’ve been having is helpful. I for one, have never felt anxiety before, but was in a grocery about 10 days ago and felt a tightening in my chest. I realized that it was a physical response to feelings of anxiety. I went home and talked about it with Shauw Chin, but I realize that for many, they don’t have a physical presence to talk to. And virtual representations in the form of zoom, facetime, and others just isn’t the same.

We are social beings and we were created by God for others. And we are in the fifth week of not being able to see each in real life and hug each and shake each other’s hands, really talk to each other and really be together. It is not what God designed for us. You may have seen the posts on social media about being in the same storm but not the same boat. That’s true, we all have our own realities. But as people of faith, we believe that Jesus is in our boat. He’s in my boat and he’s in your boat. In that sense, we are all in this storm together, and we all share in faith together.

So whatever way you are struggling, be sure to name it. And if you’d like, name it to your church so that we can nod our heads and say, “yep, I’m dealing with that too - your prayer is my prayer too.”

And beyond naming our struggles, which I believe helps a lot, I’d like to hear about other strategies that have helped you get through these weeks. If you are living alone and tend to be outgoing, what has helped you from feeling lonely? If you are in a house full of people and need alone time, what has kept you from feeling resentful? If you’re going a little stir crazy with kids, what has worked to keep you from actions you would regret? If you have never before felt anxious but have had those feelings of late, what has helped ease that anxiety? If you’re out of work because of this crisis, what has helped you not only survive but thrive? If you are an ‘essential worker’ how have you avoided feelings of anxiety in being around people all the time? If you are eldery and have been sheltering in place and have not left or have barely left your home, what has helped you from feelings of isolation? If you’re actually doing ok and feel a little bad about your relative comfort, how have you dealt with those feelings? If you’re grieving the loss of someone, maybe even someone who died of COVID-19, what has helped you process and mourn? 

What other feelings have you had and what strategies have you used to help? Maybe what you share will help others dealing with the feelings, but struggling with the strategies.

What has helped me is maintaining a routine as best as I can. I try to get up at the same time each morning and go to bed no later or earlier than before. I also try to keep my exercise routine and at least take long walks in the evenings. I also realize that for me, I need to laugh sometimes not to cry. And so I seek out positive humor where I can and have appreciated a lot of the funny things my friends have posted to Facebook - I’ve been doing a little of that myself. These daily posts have also helped me I’m sure a lot more than they’ve helped you. It has kept me intentionally thinking and praying for you each by name. And I hope you’ll reach back if you need to talk. I also hope you’ll comment, call, text or email words that could help our faith family during this time.

—Paul

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), Golden Rule, 1961. Oil on canvas, 44 1/2” x 39 1/2”. Story illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, April 1, 1961.

29 “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, 

  “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord:

“Sit at my right hand

35 until I make your enemies 

a footstool for your feet.” ’ 

36   “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” (NIV)

In this section of the speech, Acts, 2:29-36, we’ll work backwards, because it is in these verses that we have the center of Peter’s argument. As a reminder, the ideas we have of church and of the structures of Christianity all stem from an understanding of Acts 1 and 2. Jesus had spent time with the disciples after his resurrection, had given them instructions about how to keep his mission moving of showing all people the true nature of God and God’s purposes for this world, and then before he ascended to the right hand of God, which is where we believe he is now, he promised a Spirit, an advocate to help in that mission in his physical absence.

Over the last several days we have been looking at the initial results of that promise, which happened at Pentecost, a festival that filled Jerusalem with pilgrims. The Spirit entered the 120 followers of Jesus and all those pilgrims heard their own languages being spoken. The work that Jesus wanted to happen began through the power of God through those people. We believe that work continues through us by faith in Jesus until he returns as he left in the way the messengers told the disciples he would.

So in verse 36 Peter says “let all Israel be assured.” We can remember that he was speaking first to his own kindred, and we can also remember that the gospel commission from Jesus was to start in Jerusalem and expand out. But it doesn’t mean that Peter’s message is exclusively for Jews. Rather, it is an inclusive message for all the world that begins in Jerusalem. “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” Both Master and Savior, Commander and Servant, the one we worship because he is the one who redeems. Prior to this Peter refers again to David because it is important to connect Jesus with David. The gospels of Matthew and Luke both provide a genealogy that connects Jesus not only with the line of David, but even further back. By the way, I think it’s a remarkable thing to think about that this speech was given before any of the gospels had been written. This speech was just 50 days after Passover, during the time when Jesus was crucified.

Verses 31-34 are the central verses of Peter’s speech and internally frame everything else. What the people had witnessed in these followers speaking their languages had been prophesied by both Joel and David and though this man prophesied was killed, he was also resurrected, he also ascended, he also is now at the right hand of God in heaven and he also left God’s Spirit to continue the work he began on this earth. This Jesus is Lord God and savior of the world.

For the next post we’ll look at how the people responded to Peter along with his reply. The one connection I’d like to make to what we’re dealing with during this time is to remember the very first thing God did through the people by the Spirit. Through the Spirit, the people spoke in different languages so that others could understand the good news about Jesus. Right now understanding is difficult to come by, and information is hard to navigate. Some Christians are being fooled by bad information and some Christians are even fooling others with bad information. As we take on information, look first to how the Spirit develops the heart of Christ in the provider. Is it to promote unity and break down cultural barriers? Or is it self-serving and promoting cultural division? If you are person of faith, take a lesson from those 120 followers of Jesus who though unsure of the future, allowed themselves to be channels of God’s purposes of restoration.

Fra Angelico, St. Peter Preaching in the Presence of St. Mark, c. 1433.